EU expansion must not affect security - President Putin

"We look upon the EU's upcoming expansion as an expression of sovereignity of the states joining the EU and comprising it," the Russian President stated, when speaking at the Russia-EU summit on Saturday. "However, neither security nor integration cannot be built at someone's expense".

Putin also pointed out that admission of new members to the European Union would create new prerequisites for Russia-EU growing cooperation.

Vladimir Putin pointed to the need to make maximum efforts in order to resolve all remaining problems, including the one of "a legal vacuum" in Russia-EU relations, till May 2004, when the European Union will admit new members.

The Russian President suggested that "the summit participants should temporarily put aside some current issues, even very important ones, to discuss and determine future development Russia-EU relations".